Democratic Gov. Janet Mills called for additional investments in education, health care and child care, as well as returning half of the state’s projected surplus to Mainers through direct payments, during an hourlong State of the State address Thursday that also doubled as an outline for her reelection campaign.
The centerpiece of her proposal — $500 checks to roughly 800,000 state taxpayers — could also be seen as a move in a larger political battle with rival and two-time former Gov. Paul LePage. LePage is seeking a return to the Blaine House after two tumultuous terms as governor, and whose conduct has drawn frequent comparisons to the de facto leader of the Republican Party, former President Donald Trump.
LePage has renewed his oft-repeated call for eliminating the state’s income tax, which accounts for about a third of the state’s revenue, and framed it as more permanent relief for Maine residents.
Mills did not mention LePage during her address. However, she made numerous references to his time in office while describing challenges that her administration has inherited.
That is how she described the current workforce shortage. She noted that the dearth of workers was a symptom of the state’s older population.
“The Maine Department of Labor estimates that, of 22,000 people no longer in our workforce, more than 15,000 of them likely retired, a trend consistent with the rest of the country,” she said. “It is a problem I inherited, but it is not one that I will leave to our grandchildren to solve.”
The governor proposed an array of initiatives, the details of which are expected to come as early as next week when she reveals the legislation for her supplemental budget plan. Among them: A $20 million proposal to pay for up to two years of community college tuition for high school students affected by the pandemic.
She also vowed to use the state’s new broadband agency and an unprecedented slug of federal funds to bring high-speed internet to every person in Maine who wants it by 2024. Her plan to meet that timetable is not yet clear.
Mills also used her speech to address ongoing attacks by Republicans, who hope to unseat her in November and claim majorities in a Legislature that Democrats have fully controlled since Mills took office in 2019.
She defended her pandemic response, a two-year endeavor that has dominated her first term. Mills initially received high marks for her administration’s efforts to curb the spread of the virus, but like other governors, support has dropped off as the pandemic lurches into its third year, and the public has grown wary and preventive measures have become partisan.
Mills ended her state of emergency declaration and the remaining business operating restrictions when vaccines became widely available last spring. However, Republicans have waged a relentless campaign questioning the wisdom of those pandemic measures and their effects on the economy, small businesses and schoolchildren. And as the pandemic drags on, the GOP is hoping the hardships created by evolving efforts to fight a new and unknown virus can be used against Democrats.
The election contest between Mills and LePage will be no different. On Thursday, the governor attempted to couch her administration’s pandemic response as one that followed the evolving science of the virus.
“Last year’s emergency measures no longer serve the purposes they once did, nor should they,” she said.
Mills also confronted criticism of her vaccine requirement for health care workers, an issue that has strengthened a new alliance between some factions of the GOP and anti-vaccine activists.
“Now, I know there are some who say that requiring our health care workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 was a bad move,” said Mills, referring to GOP claims that the requirement exacerbated the health care worker shortage. “To them, I say: the American Medical Association, American Nurses Association, and the American Academy of Pediatricians; along with the Maine Medical Association, Maine Hospital Association, and Maine Health Care Association; Maine’s two largest hospital systems; and not to mention – the United States Supreme Court which upheld the Federal vaccine requirement and let ours stand – they all disagree with you.”
“They can’t all be wrong,” she added.
Republicans have argued that they all are. They’ve also attempted to pierce the state’s positive revenue picture as a Potemkin Village erected with repeated infusions of one-time federal dollars. Some of that money was delivered through bipartisan action by Congress. More recently, Democrats used their slim majority to provide even more in President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan that passed last year.
Mills has argued that sound fiscal management, along with federal money, has put Maine on solid financial footing. She noted that the state’s gross domestic product has returned to pre-pandemic levels. So has unemployment.
But nationwide polling suggests those economic metrics have thus far not lifted many Americans out of their pandemic malaise. Inflation, supply chain issues and high energy prices have soured their view of the economy and their own financial well-being.
Mills’ address Thursday acknowledged that there are two stories to tell about the economy. Her proposal for direct payments to Mainers was couched as an immediate response to the gloomy one, while the other proposals were framed as longer-term solutions to systemic problems that she inherited.
Republicans respond to Mills’ speech
So much of what Mills outlined during her speech Thursday will ultimately depend on lawmakers, since the legislative branch holds the state’s purse strings. And while Democrats have comfortable majorities in both chambers, they will still need to work with Republicans if they want to pass a two-thirds budget that would take effect immediately.
The prevailing response from Republican leaders, at least, was … let’s see the specifics.
“The Education Sustainability Fund – the title sounds great. I don’t know what it does,” House Minority Leader Rep. Kathleen Dillingham of Oxford told Maine Public afterward. “I’d like the details before we talk about that. And certainly comments about high-speed internet by 2024 – wonderful if that can happen, but I’d need to see the details in what we are talking about.”
There were some areas of clear bipartisan agreement, such as using state money to continue providing free breakfasts and lunches to all schoolchildren as well as funneling additional funds into nursing homes.
The Republican leaders said they were also pleased to hear Mills talk about the importance of socking away money in Maine’s Rainy Day Fund. But they weren’t ready to endorse other big-ticket items, such as offering recent high school grads free tuition at community colleges.
It’s worth noting that Mills’ proposal to devote half of the $822 million surplus back to Mainers received bipartisan applause in the chamber. But Republicans have also been pushing for permanent tax breaks.
“The speech she gave tonight, you would think Maine was in the most rosy spot in the whole wide world,” said Senate Minority Leader Sen. Jeff Timberlake of Turner. “We didn’t hear tonight about the problems that DHHS is having with children, with 31 deaths over the last few years. Transparency has been a real problem. … All of these ideas are good. We look forward to looking at them as a whole package.”
Republicans outside the State House were less, well, diplomatic.
The Maine Republican Party said that “all Mainers got from this speech was that they will continue to spend more on heating oil, food, electricity and so much more.”
“Why would Maine re-elect her?” Maine GOP chairwoman Demi Kouzounas said in a statement. “Our budget is balanced using federal dollars instead of creating economic growth and prosperity for Maine’s families. In future budget years, the burden for this spending will fall on those same families that are not being left behind.”
The Maine GOP and the LePage campaign were also sharing a script as they repeatedly referred to those federal funds – which went to all states – as “funny money.”
“Instead of working to fully eliminate Maine’s income tax like I have proposed, Janet Mills is promising more and more spending, propped up with funny money from deficit spending out of Washington, D.C.,” LePage said in a statement. “However, no debt-fueled, funny money from Washington, D.C., can paper over Janet Mills’ failure to manage Maine’s economy.”
We can expect to hear similar themes from LePage and Republicans in the coming months as they attempt to paint Mills as a big-spending Democrat who bungled Maine’s economic recovery – despite a projected $822 million surplus.
It’s also possible – perhaps likely – that the coming legislative debate over whether to use the surplus for one-time checks or tax cuts could be the first skirmish in the Mills vs. LePage election battle over taxes.
Collins: “absurd” to call Jan. 6 riot “legitimate political discourse”
Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins this week criticized the Republican National Committee for describing the Jan. 6 riots by Trump supporters as “legitimate political discourse.”
“Those who assaulted police officers, broke windows, and breached the Capitol were not engaged in legitimate political discourse, and to say otherwise is absurd,” Collins said in a statement.
The RNC’s characterization of Jan. 6 came in a censure motion against U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and U.S. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., for participating in a House-led investigation into the breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Collins is one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump on an impeachment charge that he instigated the riot during his weekslong campaign to convince his supporters that the election was stolen from him. Trump supporters in the Maine Republican Party attempted to censure Collins for her impeachment vote, but she beat back the effort. In doing so, she made an argument that resembled her critique this week of the RNC: Votes to appease Trump are not helpful to Republican electoral goals.
Last year, in a letter to the Maine GOP, Collins noted that she won reelection in a state that picked Biden over Trump and in which Democrats retained its trifecta in state government.
“That win made me the only Senate candidate in 69 races to win by splitting the ticket with the state’s presidential results — something I have done three times, the only sitting senator to do so,” she wrote.
She added, “Unfortunately, the other races in Maine did not go as well. Democrats won in the presidential race and the two congressional races, and they maintained control of the state Senate and State House. Moreover, the Democrats continue to increase their substantial enrollment advantage over Republicans.”
Collins had a similar assessment when criticizing the RNC for its censure resolution, specifically noting that continuing to dwell on 2020 undercuts the party’s electoral ambitions in 2022.
“The Republican Party started this year with a decided advantage on the issues that will determine the outcome of the fall elections,” her statement this week read. “But every moment that is spent relitigating a lost election, or defending those who have been convicted of criminal behavior, moves us further away from the goal of victory this fall.”
Collins’ comments were a response to an inquiry from Maine Public, which posed the same question to former Gov. Paul LePage and former 2nd District U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin. LePage is challenging Mills this year, while Poliquin is trying to reclaim his old seat that he lost to U.S. Rep. Jared Golden in 2018. Brent Littlefield is an advisor to both candidates and provided responses on their behalf.
Poliquin’s statement attempted to draw an equivalency between the racial justice protests of 2020 and the Jan. 6 riot.
“January 6th was a protest which, for some participants, turned into a riot and the same can be said for other protests in 2020,” he said. “Those who damaged our U.S. Capitol should be held accountable just like those who caused millions of dollars in damage to other federal buildings and killed a federal law enforcement officer during the spring and summer protests of 2020. Peaceful protests are a cornerstone of our democracy. Violence is not the answer.”
LePage did not directly address the RNC characterization of the Jan. 6 riots as “legitimate political discourse.” Instead he highlighted a tweet he sent denouncing the riot as it took place.
“I believe those people who are attempting to occupy our nation’s Capitol building need to leave and go home,” he tweeted.
LePage has previously been criticized for joining the GOP chorus that claimed the 2020 election result was illegitimate.
“I tell you, this is clearly a stolen election. I think 70 million (Trump voters) all recognize that too many votes were illegitimate votes,” he told Portland radio station WGAN on Nov. 13, 2020. “I’m really concerned that Democrats do not want honest and fair elections. They just want to win at all costs.”
Early nod to protect election workers
Threats made against Maine election clerks could come with stiffer penalties and involvement from the state attorney general if a proposal in the Legislature becomes law.
The Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee this week voted unanimously to approve a bill that would make the intentional interference, intimidation or violence against a municipal election official a Class D crime, punishable by up to a year in prison and a $2,000 fine.
The proposal was backed by the Maine Town Clerks' Association and individual election officials who told the committee last month that they have witnessed increasing harassment and hostility. Their experience matches a national trend. Reuters recently reported that there were more than 100 Trump-inspired threats of violence against election workers nationwide, and a survey by the Brennan Center for Justice found that one in three election workers now feels unsafe doing their job.
The bill approved by the committee was amended to reduce the proposed crime from a Class C felony to a misdemeanor after defense attorneys and the Maine ACLU warned that it went too far. But the committee did add the crime to the list of offenses that can be prosecuted under state election law, which would involve the Office of Attorney General.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said that moving threats against clerks into that part of the law "gives it a statewide importance and focus that by necessity, one hopes, will influence the prosecution, particularly depending on the circumstance if it's a disruption in the polling place."
The change also puts election clerk threats in the same category as voter or election fraud.
Efforts to crackdown on intimidation, harassment and threats have proliferated nationwide since the 2020 election. While there is no bill language yet available, reports from the D.C. press have hinted that federal penalties for harassing and intimidating election officials could be in the bipartisan effort to overhaul the Electoral Count Act. Sens. Collins and Angus King are working on that proposal.
The Maine proposal now moves to the full Legislature for final votes.
Delays on case of doc accused of COVID misinfo
Several weeks ago, the Political Pulse explored how a medical licensing board investigation into an Ellsworth physician fits into the bigger political and regulatory battles happening nationally over COVID-19 misinformation.
It looks like that case will take months to play out, however.
Maine’s Board of Licensure in Medicine suspended Dr. Meryl Nass’ license for 30 days starting on Jan. 12 in response to several complaints and initial fact-finding by the board. Nass has been accused of, among other things, spreading misinformation related to COVID vaccines and treatments, failing to follow basic “standards of practice” during telemedicine appointments and lying to a pharmacist to obtain drugs for that are not authorized to treat COVID.
The board was supposed to hold a hearing on Nass’ case this past week, but has agreed to delay that hearing until May at Nass’ request in order to allow her attorneys to prepare. Until then, Nass’ license to practice medicine in Maine remains suspended until either the board makes a decision or a court weighs in.
In the meantime, Nass hasn’t softened her blog posts alleging a vast conspiracy aimed at world domination (headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci) that is being perpetrated by government leaders and the pharmaceutical industry.
“The same cast of characters who lie, cheat and befuddle us with the poorest quality federal science ever invented, will be back tomorrow,” Nass wrote about a Feb. 4 meeting of the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the U.S. CDC on vaccine policies. “Don't miss their weasel words. … Watch how the CDC turns those who have taken the Oath of Hippocrates into robotic Hypocrites who merely want to transform your children into SpikeVax factories. Hopefully forever. But if not, there's a booster for that.”
She has also been feted by her good friend Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose well-funded organization Children’s Health Defense is among the nation’s purveyors of anti-vaccination messaging. In addition to having Nass on his blog, Kennedy vowed to post the names and contact information of members of the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine and encourage people to contact them.
Tribal sovereignty proposals – in Congress and the Maine Legislature
Maine’s two U.S. House members, 2nd District Rep. Jared Golden and 1st District Rep. Chellie Pingree, are proposing a bill that seeks to address one of the longstanding complaints about the 1980 settlement between the state of Maine and tribal nations.
The Advancing Equality for Wabanaki Nations Act, as the bill is titled, would guarantee that Maine’s federally recognized tribes “benefit from future laws enacted to benefit Indian tribes” around the country.
Since the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, new federal laws such as the Violence Against Women Act and the Indian Health Care Improvement Act that impacted every other federally recognized tribe have not applied to tribal nations in Maine.
Those are just two examples cited by Pingree and Golden. For decades now, tribal leaders in Maine have said that the state has used the 1980 law to essentially treat tribes as municipalities rather than sovereign nations.
Meanwhile, the most concerted effort at the state level to overhaul the 1980 law will get a public hearing next week.
The bill, L.D. 1626, deals with a broad range of issues important to the Passamaquoddy Tribe, the Penobscot Nation, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians and the Aroostook Band of Micmacs. The bill proposes major changes to gambling, taxation, criminal justice and land use.
Tribal leaders and a broad coalition of supporters have been pushing for the reforms for several years only to see them delayed by the pandemic and opposition from various sectors. The Mills administration is among those who have raised serious concerns about various aspects of the bill.
The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee is slated to hold a public hearing on LD 1626 starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
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